China has succeeded in creating another man-made snowfall in Tibet Autonomous Region to ease drought, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Technicians took advantage of suitable weather conditions to carry out the artificial snowfall in the regional capital of Lhasa from 2:02 p.m. to 4:05 p.m. Saturday, said Gaisang Puncog, head of the Tibet Regional Weather Modification Center.

The precipitation was measured at 0.2 mm in downtown Lhasa and the accumulated snow on the nearby mountains reached 2 cm after the artificial snowfall, he said.

"It played an active role in increasing soil moisture, making the air cleaner and reducing the occurrences of respiratory diseases," he said. "The snowfall and following temperature drop are good for the growth of winter crops."

Technicians with the weather modification authorities fired six rocket shells containing 10 cigarette-sized sticks of silver iodide totaling 1,395 grams over the city's skies in the artificial snowfall operation, he added.

This operation came after another man-made snowfall launched in Ngari Prefecture in western Tibet on Jan. 9.

Lhasa and neighboring areas have reported a lack of snowfall this winter with higher temperatures than normal years.

In April last year, China succeeded in creating artificial snow for the first time in Nagqu County at an altitude of about 4,500 meters in northern Tibet.

(Xinhua News Agency January 23, 2008)